Tales of the Squire- Dark Ascension Launch

Ever since I have been writing this article people have all came up to me and asked what I was going to write about in the upcoming weeks and my answer to them is always a shrug and an “I don’t know.” With this I have had plenty of suggestions of things I can write about but some of them are just not that great, while others are just plain weird. One of my friends suggested I write about Pants. That was his suggestion; nothing else was added to the suggestions, simply “Pants”. Needless to say, I have not written about pants, until now! Just kidding, I don’t even know how I could write a legitimate article about pants, so I just won’t. Luckily this a few weekends ago at Dark Ascension release time I was given something to write about. My friend Ed was kind enough to sponsor me in the sealed event at the lovely Jupiter Games and let’s just say that my sealed pool was pretty damn crazy. To be perfectly honest my deck could have had a bit better of a curve, but still it did exactly what I needed it to do. Here is the deck I ended up playing:

I don’t remember the Basic Land split but it was perfectly fine for the deck as in I never was color screwed or anything of that nature. As you can see my deck has some crazy bombs and the bomby land that goes with the deck. I could always complain and say I wish I had a Midnight Haunting or Lingering Souls, but I cannot really complain with a pool like that. I built my deck pretty quick and someone asked to look at it then complained because it was too good and they did not want to play me. Sometimes you just open well but this time unfortunately for me the cards and any prizes were going to Ed. The event was scheduled to be 5 rounds and just as expected my deck did exactly what it was supposed to do. That is, not die in the first 4 or 5 turns and then cast good cards and hope the opponent doesn’t answer them. My first opponent had a fine black white deck as well, which made Fiend of the Shadows so much better because anything he is exiling is something I can most likely cast. He also had a Geist-Honored Monk which killed me in game 2 because my mana liked to come all at once during that game. He told me my deck was unfair, which I agreed with and then waited for the next round.

My next opponent I believe was playing a Bant deck that played that Predator Ooze and big green dudes. I managed to lock him down with Sorin and got to ultimate him taking out three of his dudes. I again lost game 2 because of mana but that’s just how limited often goes for me. Round 3 I faced off against a UW deck with a splash of red for flashing back Rally the Peasants. His deck had a lot of flyers and combat tricks in the form of pumping his dudes and such. In game 3 against him I had Geist Honored Monk, some other dudes, and the Vault. I kept just swinging with other dudes because I didn’t want to have the Monk die to Rebuke and I never blocked because I knew he was holding pump spells to kill off my monk. I mean I probably could have done something with the Monk, but I was not dying and he was, so I was okay with it. Turns out he actually had two pump spells which hit me for a pretty good amount, but not enough for the kill.

Round 4 was upon me and I was told my opponent’s deck was just as insane as mine at it really was, luckily for me, my opponent played sub-optimally in game 3. He was playing a 4 color deck with Wolfbitten Captive, Daybreak Ranger, Elder of Laurels, and Increasing Devotion. His splash of black and red was for none other than Olivia. I took down game 1 and in game 2 he curved out perfectly with all of them fancy green cards right away, whereas I stumbled on mana. Game 3 was a game I wasn’t really looking forward to because He just had overall a better curve. I should have not won game 3, but due to poor play from my opponent I was able to take him down. At one point his board was Captive, Laurels, Olivia, and the equipment that gives his guys +3/+0 and lifelink if they are human [Butcher’s Cleaver]. I managed to cut him off from double black with some poor black mana LD spell. I had Avacynian Priest, Bloodline Keeper, and Fiend of the Shadows plus 6 lands. He finally got double black in play and decided what to steal. He recalled that my Priest had been shot for 1 and was in fact a vampire; he instead took Bloodline Keeper, which I responded my tapping and letting him have it. I cast Geistcatcher’s Rig next turn to kill it and pass. He then stole Fiend of the Shadows, while I ripped Fiend Hunter to remove Olivia and then tap down his Fiend and eventually trade with his green guys to leave his board of just the Fiend. Using Vault I got back into the game and eventually won. There is no way I could have won if he just took the Priest at either point but luckily for me he did not.

After round 4 there were 3 of us that were 4-0 and we tried to figure out a split to make us all happy and it was arranged. I didn’t get paired down and still played against my opponent who was also black white and beat him in four games.

I ended up getting 8 packs for Ed and he got rid of the Sorin to cover my entry so all was well. I got to take home a Havengul Lich for my cube because I have been playing that guy in Commander and he is crazy. I also convinced Jupiter Legend Seneca to run Lich in his UB standard deck, and he also said it was absolutely crazy. I think that card is going to get really good and me a major player in Standard. Maybe not right now while the Titan cycle still exists, but who knows what happens when they leave standard.

I don’t know if you folks have seen the newest facebook craze amongst Magic players but Wizards made an app in which you make your Standard “dream team” for the Pro Tour which starts this February 9th. Basically you pick a card of each type and depending on the number of times it shows up in the top of the event you score points and then the most points wins and such. I just wanted to tell you all my picks because by the time my article goes up the lists will be set and people can’t copy me (I don’t know if anyone would want to, but still.)

Planeswalker 5 Points – Sorin, Lord of Innistrad

Large Creature 3 Points – Havengul Lich

Medium Creature 3 Points – Geist of Saint Traft

Small Creature 3 Points – Snapcaster Mage

Instant 2 Points – Mana Leak

Sorcery 2 Points – Black Sun’s Zenith

Enchantment – Curse of Death’s Hold

Artifact – Nihil Spellbomb

Non-Basic Land – Darkslick Shores

As you can see I am fully confidant in UB control as that is what all of my team is. Most UB deck don’t play a “Medium” Creature so Geist of Saint Traft seemed to be the card that sees play. I do not really care if I win or lose because it’s all for fun. Let me know what you list is if you have one. Good luck with Dark Ascension in Standard and hope to see you in Baltimore